Abstract: Objective  To investigate the expression and clinical significance of hOT7T175 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods  hOT7T175 expression levels were detected in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and nontumorous nasopharyngeal tissues by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR). Categorical date were analyzed by  χ2 test, multifactor analysis using logistic regression analysis. Results The positive rate of hOT7T175 protein in NPC was 40.9% (45/110) and 70.5% (31/44) in nontumorous nasopharyngeal tissue, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=10.976, P=0.001). The expression of hOT7T175 protein closely correlated with lymph node metastasis in NPC, and the smallest concomitant probability was 0.003 and the largest Wald statistic was 8.813. It was illustrated that lymph node metastasis was an important factor of affecting hOT7T175 protein expression. The positive rate of hOT7T175 mRNA in NPC was 47.1% (16/34) and 88.2% (15/17) in nontumorous nasopharyngeal tissue, and the difference was statistically significant (χ2=6.426, P=0.011). The expression of hOT7T175 mRNA correlated with the age of NPC patient and lymph node metastasis. The concomitant probability of lymph node metastasis (0.001) was the smallest and the largest Wald statistic was 11.647. It was illustrated that lymph node metastasis was an important factor of affecting hOT7T175 mRNA expression. Conclusion  hOT7T175 highly expresses in nontumorous nasopharyngeal tissue and lowly expresses in NPC. The low expression of hOT7T175 is correlated with lymph node metastasis of NPC, which indicates that hOT7T175 may play an important role in the metastasis of NPC.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasms, Genes, hOT7T175